Peter de Villiers says he will definitely re-apply for the Springbok coaching job.

When the Boks crashed out of the recent World Cup at the quarter-final stage, De Villiers told the media that his journey with the team was over. However, he’s since changed his mind and wants to continue next year.

‘Not winning the World Cup makes me feel like there is unfinished business, that the story isn’t finished,’ De Villiers told SuperSport.com rugby writer Gavin Rich. ‘So if they call for applications for the Springbok job I will definitely apply for it. Why not?’

De Villiers added that the way the Boks had exited the World Cup, with a poor refereeing performance from Bryce Lawrence contributing to their defeat to the Wallabies, had influenced his decision to re-apply for the job.

‘I don’t want to make excuses. We got knocked out and as I said when we got back from overseas, a quarter-final defeat wasn’t good enough and we failed the nation. But what was so frustrating was that we appeared to be peaking at the right time, and there was still room for further growth. I feel the story has been left unfinished,’ he said.

‘I made a lot of mistakes along the way, but you learn from those mistakes, and I believe that I have learned sufficiently that if I was to get a chance to do it again, I wouldn’t make those same mistakes again.’